Tagged with: complexity • cybernetics • feedback • fifth-discipline • loops • Network • pattern recognition • patterns • senge • system theory
This is the final post in my series about using systems thinking for analyzing problems in projects.
1. Systems Thinking: A Technique To Find Project Problems
2. Systems Thinking: Looking For Causal Loops
3. Shifting The Burden And Fixes That Backfire – Archetypes Part 1
4. Limits To Growth And Tragedy Of The Commons – Archetypes Part 2
I started this topic to be able to analyze problematic situations in projects. You will need to try this technique a few times before you really get the hang of it.
To be a good project manager you have to “see” potential problems. Literature provides us with large lists of potential problems in projects. You could look at all those lists to see if your problem is on it somewhere. But wouldn’t it be great to be able to look at problems in your project on a more fundamental level? That would be the best thing that can happen to you, and the techniques discussed in this series, will help you just with that!
Start running small workshops where you discuss the variables you chose (like budget overrun, number of bugs).
- If this variable is going up or down with ever increased speed you have to look for a reinforcing loop;
- If the variable is moving towards a threshold, and either stays on this threshold or starts oscillating around it, you have a balancing loop;
- When a problem symptom alternately improves (the variable goes down) and deteriorates (problem goes up worse than before) you might have a “Fixes That Backfire” on your hands;
- There is growth (sometimes explosive) leveling off or failing into decline, you might start looking for “Limits To Growth”.
Getting familiar with the archetypes helps you looking for the right loops and links.
And there is an additional bonus: when discussing and talking about the problems in this way, the solutions just “pop up” as you are addressing the fundamental causes.
